Tibet: Phuntsog Nyidrol, Last of the 'Drapchi Nuns', Arrives in US

Phuntsog Nyidrol, a Tibetan nun who was imprisoned for 15 years after peaceful protests in 1989, arrived in San Francisco this morning more than two years after her release from Drapchi (Tibet Autonomous Region) prison, Lhasa

Phuntsog Nyidrol arrives at Dulles airport in Washington DC on March 15,
2006

Phuntsog Nyidrol, a Tibetan nun who was imprisoned for 15 years after peaceful
protests in 1989, arrived in San Francisco this morning more than two years
after her release from Drapchi (Tibet Autonomous Region) prison, Lhasa. Thirty-four
year old Phuntsog Nyidrol, who has suffered from ill-health following torture
while in custody, was accompanied by a US Embassy official on the flight and
released into ICT's care on arrival. She had an emotional reunion at the airport
with her former cell-mate Ngawang Sangdrol, who now lives in the US, as well
as Mary-Beth Markey, Executive Director of ICT.

Mary Beth Markey said: "Phuntsog Nyidrol and Sangdrol have been hugging,
holding hands and crying, overjoyed to be reunited. This release is wonderful
for Phuntsog and her former prison comrades. However it is important to note
that despite serious engagement between the US and China over the years, there
has been little or no progress on fundamental human rights issues in Tibet.
Tibetans like Phuntsog Nyidrol continue to suffer torture and imprisonment
simply for the peaceful expression of their views."

The release to the US of Phuntsog Nyidrol appears to be a gesture in advance
of Chinese President Hu Jintao's Washington, DC summit with President Bush
on April 19-20. It also follows the fifth round of dialogue between the Dalai
Lama's representatives and Beijing, which concluded last month.

Phuntsog Nyidrol, a former Mechungri nun from Lhasa who won the Reebok Human
Rights Award in 1995, is the last of a high-profile group of nuns detained
for acts of peaceful resistance over the past decade to be released. She was
arrested on October 14, 1989, for taking part in a peaceful protest against
Chinese rule, linked to the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. She
was subsequently sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by the Lhasa Intermediate
People's Court on November 25, 1989. In September 1993, she received a nine-year
sentence extension after she joined 13 other nuns, including Ngawang Sangdrol,
in secretly recording songs about their prison experience and hopes for Tibet's
future on a tape cassette that was smuggled out to the outside world. After
a one-year sentence reduction for good behavior in March 2001, the remainder
of her sentence was commuted on February 26, 2004, and she was released from
prison.

Since then, Phuntsog Nyidrol has been held at home in Lhasa under close
surveillance and denied a passport because her political rights have been
under restriction. Last August, a delegation from the US Commission for International
Religious Freedom was allowed to have a brief interview with her in Lhasa,
and reported: "[Phuntsog Nyidrol] remains under constant surveillance,
is restricted in her movements and associations, and has debilitating health
problems that cannot be addressed in her locality." The US Commission
said that the Chinese authorities had denied that she was under surveillance.

Phuntsog Nyidrol's arrival in the US today follows a number of other early
releases of well-known political prisoners from Tibet and one from Xinjiang
(East Turkestan) in recent years, generally timed to coincide with specific
periods of US-China engagement involving criticisms of Beijing's human rights
record. Uyghur prisoner Rebiya Kadeer was released to the US in March 2005
after serving six years of an eight year sentence, soon before US Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to the PRC. Ngawang Sangdrol's release
to the US in March 2003 after serving 11 years of a 21-year sentence came
before a significant visit of the then Chinese President Jiang Zemin to America.

Phuntsog Nyidrol, who was serving the longest sentence of female political
prisoners after Ngawang Sangdrol's 21 years, was released soon after the US
State Department released its annual human rights report that found China
guilty of 'serious human rights abuses' in Tibet, including "execution
without due process, torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without public trial,
and lengthy detention of Tibetans for peacefully expressing their political
or religious views." The report was thought to lay the path for the US
to table a critical resolution on China at the UN Commission of Human Rights
meeting in Geneva that year.

Ngawang Sangdrol, who shared a cell with Phuntsog Nyidrol for several years,
said today: "It is overwhelming to see Phuntsog Nyidrol again. In prison,
she was always so strong, we thought she could do anything, and she had great
self-confidence and courage. We had no chance to study in prison, but she
was so hard-working in the labor tasks assigned to her, and very devoted in
her Buddhist practice."